The Patriot Ledger has begun an occasional series on the drug-abuse epidemic on the South Shore, where an overdose claims a life every eight days.

Records gathered from police, courts and the medical examiner shatter stereotypes about who gets sucked into this deadly vortex. It's not all young adults. The median age of overdose victims is 41. And they're not the dregs of society. They are homemakers, professionals, students and laborers.

With every new set of statistics we see the problem expanding deeper into our communities and killing people at unprecedented rates.

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